Guidance for Returning Officers administering Local Government Elections in England

Argraffu'r canllawiau llawn

Checking the personal identifiers

You must check the identifiers on all returned postal voting statements.1
 
If you have delegated authority to another person to make decisions on postal voting statements at the verification of postal vote identifiers, you should provide them with a copy of the following Commission and Forensic Science Service guidance on signature checking, and instruct them to follow it.

Forensic Science Service guidance on signature checking (PDF)

The tables below are a guide to making decisions on whether to accept or reject a returned postal voting statement.

When to accept a returned postal vote statement

Signature provided? DoB provided? Signature waiver granted?
Blank Yes Yes
Yes Provided but in a different format - e.g. day and month are transposed - and you are satisfied that the DoB given is the same as the one held on postal voters record N/A

When to reject a returned postal vote statement

Signature provided? DoB provided? Signature waiver granted?
Blank Yes No
Blank Blank Yes
Yes Blank No
Yes Does not match postal voters record No
Does not match postal voters record Yes No
Yes Date postal vote completed provided in error N/A

Your decision on determining a postal voting statement does not have to be based only on the information on the postal voting statement and personal identifiers record.

When making your decision, you may refer to other sources, for example, the signature provided on a registration form, or consider any additional information you have. For example, an elector may contact you to say that they have broken their arm since supplying their identifiers to the ERO and are unable to replicate their normal signature.

You may decide to accept their postal voting statement as valid if you are satisfied that this is the case, even if it has a signature that looks different to the one on the personal identifiers record.

Every decision on a postal voting statement should be taken on an individual basis.

Complete absence of a signature (where the elector has not been granted a waiver) or a date of birth must always lead to a rejection.

In determining the validity of the postal voting statement, neither the signature nor the date of birth is more important than the other – both must be provided (unless the signature has not been provided and the elector has been granted a waiver), and both must match.

Candidates, election agents and postal voting agents may object to the rejection of a postal voting statement. If they object to a rejection, you must mark the postal voting statement ‘rejection objected to’2 before attaching it to the ballot paper envelope and placing it in the receptacle for rejected votes. 

Accredited observers and representatives of the Commission have no right to object to the rejection of a postal voting statement. 

Diweddarwyd ddiwethaf: 10 Mawrth 2023